English as a lingua franca: From classroom to out-of-class communication

This study explores the perceived contributions and impacts of out-of-class English as a lingua franca (ELF)-oriented practices on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ perspectives for EFL communication. Twenty-two Turkish EFL learners studying at a state university participated to the study and each of them were asked to engage in communication with a large number of international and exchange students from different culture and language contexts on campus. At the onset of the process, Turkish learners were informed about the written and spoken genres of the out-of-class communication (including business meetings, job interviews, academic reports, resumes etc.) incorporated into an oral communication skill course in 14 weeks. Immediately after each ELF communication, that is the out-of-class communication activity completed with the native speakers or non-native speakers of English, they kept their weekly records and wrote self-reflections. The collected data were analyzed by following the steps of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings suggest that ELF-oriented practices out-of-class communication raised EFL learners’ awareness and perceptions towards cultural and linguistic diversities. Also, EFL learners appeared to show new insights on intelligibility in communication and willingness to employ communication strategies such as negotiation for meaning, use of non-verbal communication, in order to enhance their intercultural communicative competence.